Match Reaction v Waterford (away)

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Deeney. :haha:

Classic away performance. :bow:

AMN saving our arses. :bow:

Taking it easy ahead of the Napoli game. :pray:

[SMatthews]

A win is a win is a win as they say.

If it’s good enough for Pool to fluke a win over Everton and for Utd to do the same against West Ham, I’ll take that all day.

Didn’t play well going forward at all but a more professional second half than the first.

A win before we go to Napoli too. Top four is on.

[Letters]

First away league clean sheet of the season :blink:

[WMUG]

We're gonna get roasted alive in Naples.

[Letters]

We're gonna get roasted alive in Naples.

Yes, because that’s how football works.

[Marc Overmars]

A bit of a fluke but a big 3 points none the less. I think our rivals would have been banking on us dropping points in this one. A few more difficult tasks to come but the top 4 trophy is still in our hands.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Horrible performance but hey the points are in the bag.

[Penguin]

When other teams are playing against 10 men they take advantage of the extra man and take control of the game. We always make harder work of it than we should.

Oh well, very important 3 points.

[Chippy]

When other teams are playing against 10 men they take advantage of the extra man and take control of the game. We always make harder work of it than we should.

Oh well, very important 3 points.

We are very, very poor away from home.

Emery should have made tactical improvements by now.

[Globalgunner]

The mentality of this team always has been and remains poor. Emery hasn't changed that and obviously isnt the man to do it. It was noted in the pre game analysis that his away performances at Sevilla were just as abysmal. You cant really judge his time at PSG as they were so dominant. This team is extrinsically scared as they were under Wenger. Any of the other top 6 teams yesterday would have blown Watford away in that same situation, instead we awere afraid of the advantage, scared to put tackles in and made basic mistakes with passing and control of the ball that handed the advantage to the 10 men. Without checking, Im guessing the overall ball possession was at least 50:50 if not in Watfords favour.

[Marc Overmars]

Apparently this win is our first away from home against a top half team (at the time of playing) since November 2017 when we beat Burnley. :lol:

[Letters]

Apparently this win is our first away from home against a top half team (at the time of playing) since November 2017 when we beat Burnley. :lol:

Bloody hell. The stats are really damning. As I said above that was our first away clean sheet of the season in the league. It's pretty pathetic.
And it was what, 3 away wins all season last year, for a side with pretensions of a top 4 finish? Nowhere near good enough.
Sort that out and we'll be easily top 4 with our home record.

[SMatthews]

Bloody hell. The stats are really damning. As I said above that was our first away clean sheet of the season in the league. It's pretty pathetic.
And it was what, 3 away wins all season last year, for a side with pretensions of a top 4 finish? Nowhere near good enough.
Sort that out and we'll be easily top 4 with our home record.

Which would make us the third best team by some distance and we all know we are not that good yet. We’ve played one less game than Utd and Chelsea away from home, win that and we’ve only got 3 and 4 points less than them away from the Emirates.

[Mac76]

Without checking, Im guessing the overall ball possession was at least 50:50 if not in Watfords favour.

66% Arseenal actually - you weren't paying attention, there were periods where we passed it around quite comfortably - it's only when we tried to create chances and made a mess of it that they got the opportunity to come forward and then, while they did get in the area once or twice, we actually didn't defend that badly IMO, notwithstanding that Mustafi doesn't actually know how to defend at all...

they did get more corners than us apart from that the stats are all in our favour:

Possession
Home34%
Away66%

Shots
Home11
Away19

Shots on Target
Home3
Away6

Corners
Home6
Away4

Fouls
Home12
Away8

[Mac76]

Which would make us the third best team by some distance and we all know we are not that good yet. We’ve played one less game than Utd and Chelsea away from home, win that and we’ve only got 3 and 4 points less than them away from the Emirates.

quite - i think people on here are getting carried away about Chelsea and Moan U - we're holding up well given the disparity in squad costs especially with Man Ure

[Letters]

Which would make us the third best team by some distance and we all know we are not that good yet. We’ve played one less game than Utd and Chelsea away from home, win that and we’ve only got 3 and 4 points less than them away from the Emirates.

We aren't that good yet but our home form is miles better than anyone's bar the top 2.
City have 48 points at home, Liverpool 47, Arsenal 44. Next best is Chelsea with 38 - all with 17 played.
The bit I don't understand is how our home form can be that good and our away so mediocre. Last year it was a complete car crash, this year has been better but it's still not good enough and it's what is holding us back from a confident top 4 finish.

[GP]

Horrible performance but hey the points are in the bag.

I don't think it was horrible. We missed a few big chances and defended quite well.

[SMatthews]

We aren't that good yet but our home form is miles better than anyone's bar the top 2.
City have 48 points at home, Liverpool 47, Arsenal 44. Next best is Chelsea with 38 - all with 17 played.
The bit I don't understand is how our home form can be that good and our away so mediocre. Last year it was a complete car crash, this year has been better but it's still not good enough and it's what is holding us back from a confident top 4 finish.

I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as that. For whatever reason, each team has their good and bad points. The reason four teams are battling for 3/4 is because those pros and cons seem to have equalled themselves out across the board. One of ours is away from home (although I don’t think it’s quite the disaster everyone is making it out be). Statistically, our improvement away from home compared to last season is the reason we are where we are right now. Emery’s squeezing every last drop out of this squad, as most of us expected to be in 5/6th. I couldn’t see us being way ahead of Spurs or closer to Liverpool.

[Letters]

I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as that. For whatever reason, each team has their good and bad points. The reason four teams are battling for 3/4 is because those pros and cons seem to have equalled themselves out across the board. One of ours is away from home (although I don’t think it’s quite the disaster everyone is making it out be). Statistically, our improvement away from home compared to last season is the reason we are where we are right now. Emery’s squeezing every last drop out of this squad, as most of us expected to be in 5/6th. I couldn’t see us being way ahead of Spurs or closer to Liverpool.

I think for a first season Emery has done pretty well. We've got a good chance of progressing to the Europa League semi-final and who knows what happens then, we have a chance in that competition.
And we're in the hunt for a top 4 finish. Our away form could yet mess it up for us but last year we weren't even in the hunt so I think overall it's been OK.
If we can sort out our away form and defence - it's frankly ludicrous that last night was our first away league clean sheet of the season - then we could push on next year.
There's a huge gulf in class between us and Liverpool/City but we were never going to bridge that in one season.

[Marc Overmars]

It's been a mixed bag at times but Emery has done well. Could yet be a great season depending on what happens in the Europa but it's good to have some excitement back.

[Mac76]

It's been a mixed bag at times but Emery has done well. Could yet be a great season depending on what happens in the Europa but it's good to have some excitement back.

despite yesterday, i've gone back to thinking the Europa is probably our best hope, but we'll see

[Bumble]

despite yesterday, i've gone back to thinking the Europa is probably our best hope, but we'll see

not fussed about the league so much, would love to win the Europa league but starting to have scary visions of Arsenal v Chelsea final and ##### v Liverpool Champions League final. And neither end in a positive way.

[Letters]

##### v Liverpool Champions League final.
:lol: